Airborne carrots and a cloud-hopping rabbit add a dash of whimsy to this joystick-controlled game for the Commodore 64, VIC, and Atari.

It's harvest time in that great big carrot patch in the sky and Copernicus, a rather hungry rabbit, is on the prowl for his favorite vegetable.

Unfortunately, due to a fluke of nature as well as incredibly bad air pollution, the carrots are suspended in midair. This, however, can be turned into an advantage for Copernicus, since he is able to hop around on the dense clouds in pursuit of his meal.

He may also jump around on platforms which have been dispersed across the sky for absolutely no reason at all.

Watch That Brier Patch

The only thing Copernicus cannot do is land in the brier patch below—he would be transported back to his initial position. This would not be so bad if he had an unlimited number of transport passes—unfortunately, he has not. After they are exhausted, he is condemned to the brier patch for the rest of his life.

If he clears the sky of carrots, then benevolent forces disperse a new set of carrots for him, and his friends in the brier patch become so happy for him that they usually jump around in a rabbit euphoria. Meanwhile, Copernicus continues to collect carrots until he runs out of transport passes.

One Tricky Carrot

Once in a while our hero eats a jumping bean which has been disguised as a carrot by some unknown troublemaker. This causes him to hop continuously, hampering his ability to gather carrots. In addition, the more he eats, the heavier he becomes, until he finds that he can no longer jump as high as he used to. But then, it just adds more challenge to his hare-raising adventures.

Joystick Controls

The object of the game is to collect all the carrots. Copernicus jumps when you press the fire button or push the joystick forward. He moves either left or right when you push the joystick in either of those directions.

Clearing the screen of carrots starts you on a new level. Every fifth level is a "jumper round" during which the rabbit jumps continuously. At the completion of every tenth level, a new rabbit is earned. Rabbits are displayed at the top center of the screen, and one is lost every time you fall into the brier patch at the bottom of the screen. When all rabbits are exhausted, the game is over.

You have 60 seconds to collect the carrots. If your time runs out, the clouds speed up and you forfeit an extra time bonus. If you still do not collect all the carrots within 30 seconds, the clouds and platforms will start disappearing.

The score is displayed on the top right. Try to beat a score of 10,000! The key to high scoring is to clear the carrots quickly and collect the extra time bonus.

Logic (VIC And 64 Versions)

Lines 5 to 20 set the custom characters. Lines 30 to 55 produce a short machine language routine to move the clouds. Lines 100 to 150 initialize the screen for each new level.

Lines 200 to 280 are the main game loop. Lines 400 to 410 are a subroutine which increases the game difficulty when the timer reaches zero. Lines 500 to 520 are called when the game ends.

Lines 600 to 635 control the interlevel features like the jumper round and game speed. Lines 700 and 705 are called when a carrot is gathered.

Lines 800 to 840 are a routine which is called when all carrots have been gathered. It controls the extra time bonus and the bouncing rabbit.

Lines 900 and 905 are called when a rabbit hits the brier patch.

Bunny Hop (VIC And 64 Versions)

Line 20 contains the variable I, which is the general speed of the game. Decreasing it makes the game faster but also causes Copernicus to remain on the screen for less time.

Line 25 has CT, which is the number of carrots you must collect initially. LI is one less than the number of rabbits you start off with. L is the number of cloud pieces that are placed in each row.

The platform pieces in line 115 and also in line 117 of the 64 version are character number 183.

Line 150 has the variable D, which contains the initial bunny character. It is either 33, facing right, or 34, facing left. Line 150 also increases CT by one. Changing this to CT = CT + 0 will keep the number of carrots to be collected at four.

Use Either Joystick Port

The statement in line 200 of the 64 version, Y = PEEK(56320)AND PEEK(QQ) combines the joystick ports, enabling use of either.

Changing the number 36 to the number 1 in line 245 will enable a person to jump on the brier patch without losing a bunny.

Z of line 400 is the cloud speed switch. If Z is zero, the clouds remain slow. They speed up when Z is changed to -1.

Line 610 increments LE, which is the level counter. If LE is greater than 19, W is set to one instead of zero, which makes Copernicus' jumps shorter.

An Extra Rabbit

The tens in line 615 give you an extra rabbit every ten levels. Changing this to INT(LE/5) = LE/5 will give extra rabbits every five levels.

Line 620 makes V true (-1) every five levels, which produces a jumper round.

Line 625 resets the number of carrots to 4 every ten levels.

Line 630 decreases the number of cloud pieces per row. Changing it to L = L - 0 will keep the number of clouds constant.

20 Points For A Carrot

You are given 20 points for a carrot in line 700. Changing this to FORX = 1TO55 would give you 55 points for each carrot.

If you are tired of the large number of bunny hops at high levels, just revise line 800 with FORC = 1TO2, which will perform only two hops each level throughout the game.

To change the number of extra bonus points, simply revise line 830 to something like SC = SC + 2.